The goal of the proposed Center for Nursing Outcomes Research (CNOR) is to contribute to the development of better measures and methods for studying variation in patient outcomes, and to apply them to the evaluation of the effectiveness of nursing cures. We propose to advance nursing outcomes research across clinical specialties, the health disease continuum, health care settings, and diverse populations, placing a high priority on minorities at risk or in poor health. Penn's School of Nursing distinguishes itself among nursing schools by holding the top ranking in receipt of NIH research funding in 1998, having six existing productive research centers whose work extends beyond national borders, its own network of clinical nursing practices (the Penn Nursing Network) that provides a laboratory for outcomes research and for transplanting research to practice, an academic partnership with the first and largest fully integrated academic health system in the country, and a top-ranked academic program spanning undergraduate through post-doctoral nursing education. The specific aims of CNOR are 1) to expand the compendium of empirically-robust outcome measures that are sensitive to nursing's interventions across multiple care delivery settings and population groups; 2) to develop new research methodologies critical to advancing the science of nursing outcomes research; 3) to create a warehouse of outcome research data sets, instruments, and other methodologic tools and demonstrate how existing data can be exploited in nursing outcomes research; 4) to rapidly disseminate research findings to researchers, clinicians, and the public; and 5) to foster the translation of research into practice. The CNOR will support three cores: Administrative Core, Research Facilitation Core, and Dissemination Core. These cores will provide technical assistance, access to data, linkages to researchers throughout the University and beyond, developmental funds for the support of pilot studies, and will create the synergy to advance Penn Nursing's strong research base to the next level of scientific achievement.